


He Won't Stay Down

by RedRowan



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, The Defenders (Marvel TV) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 19:31:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12196212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedRowan/pseuds/RedRowan
Summary: In the aftermath of Midland Circle, the last thing Danny, Jessica and Luke need is Frank Castle running around Hell's Kitchen.





	He Won't Stay Down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kristen999](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristen999/gifts).



> Huge thank you to kristen999 for this prompt!
> 
> From the kink meme:
> 
> "Frank is tearing the city apart looking for the devil because he won't believe he's really dead (show him the body and he'll stop looking!). Luke, JJ, and Danny discover what Frank is doing, and they form an awkward team with a common goal: Humor the Punisher on his wild search, keep an eye on him, and don't let him kill anyone. The Defenders may not like what Frank does, but they don't turn him in to the cops, and while they're searching they try to understand why Daredevil and Punisher would ever give a crap about each other. 
> 
> Ultimately, they're constantly freaked out by Frank and a little intimidated even though he doesn't have any powers, but when he actually finds a recovering Matt alive, they get front row seats to Frank's human side. 
> 
> Preference for gen or Frank/Matt. Bonus points if someone on the Defenders, maybe JJ, gets to know Frank better than the others and actually likes him."
> 
> https://daredevilkink.dreamwidth.org/9408.html?thread=17946560#cmt17946560

Frank Castle finds Danny first, literally showing up out of nowhere in the middle of the night on a Hell’s Kitchen rooftop. Danny recognizes the white skull painted on his armor, and flings himself at Castle, throwing kicks and punches in dizzying combinations, forcing Castle backwards. A handgun appears in Castle’s hand, and Danny disarms him, but Castle is still coming, giving as good as he’s getting.

“I got - no beef - with you, kid,” Castle pants. He’s taken hits that would lay out any Hand ninja, and he’s still standing.

“You’re a murderer,” Danny says.

Castle gives a bloody grin that does nothing to refute the argument. “Nobody who didn’t have it coming.” 

He steps back, out of Danny’s reach. Danny should follow, take him down when he’s on the back foot, but he hesitates.

“Tell me what happened to Daredevil,” Castle says.

“What do you care?” Danny snaps. It’s been two weeks since Matt’s death, and the mention of his name opens up something raw inside him.

“He’s -“ Castle stops himself, and Danny doesn’t quite know what it is that flickers across his face. “Heard there was a new player in Hell’s Kitchen. Heard you might be connected to him.”

“Most people just assume I’m him without the mask,” Danny admits.

“Yeah, well, you’re not, so where is he?”

Danny swallows.

“Midland Circle,” he says. “He stayed behind…got the rest of us out.”

Castle nods, inscrutable.

“They pull him out?” he says.

“He’s forty stories down,” Danny says.

“So that’s a no.” And Castle grins and shakes his head.

“He’s dead,” Danny says quietly. “No-one could have survived that.”

“You met the son of a bitch?” Castle stalks forward, and Danny tenses for another round. “The one thing I learned, going up against him? Daredevil does not. Stay. Down.”

And he’s gone before Danny can collect himself enough to respond.

***

Jessica is out of bed and across the room before she’s fully awake, grabbing the intruder climbing through her window and throwing him against the wall before she realizes who it is.

“Jesus, Danny, learn to knock,” she says.

“Sorry,” Danny mutters. “Weird night.”

Jessica sighs. “You want a drink?”

“Yeah.”

She pours him a glass of…whatever, and has one herself.

“Hand?” she says.

“No.” Danny takes a long drink. “Frank Castle.”

“Fuck.”

“He wanted to know what happened to…to Matt.”

Jessica stops herself from squeezing the glass until it breaks.

“What’d you tell him?” she says.

“The truth. That Matt died saving us. He didn’t believe me.”

“That Matt saved us?” Jessica says, intently studying the color of the liquid in her glass.

“That Matt’s dead.”

Jessica glances up, away from her glass, and sees Danny looking at her with earnest blue eyes.

“You don’t think -“ he starts.

“Don’t,” Jessica says. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

Danny nods and drops his head. He finishes his drink.

“Thanks,” he says, handing her the glass. He turns to leave. “Nice door.” He opens it, then closes it. “Castle said that Daredevil doesn’t stay down.”

“Castle’s a psychopath,” Jessica says. “What the hell would he know about Matt?”

Danny nods and leaves, closing the door behind him. Jessica picks up the bottle from her desk, and heads back to bed.

***

Her hangover is worse than usual when the knocking on her door wakes her up.

“Jess?”

Fuck. Luke.

She remembers to pull on pants before she opens the door. Luke is there, all six feet, God-knows-how-many inches of him.

“Danny called you,” she says.

“Technically, he called Claire,” Luke says. He holds out the cardboard tray in his hand, two cups nestled in it. “Brought you coffee.”

“Thanks.” She takes the coffee and waves him in. “So, what, does Claire want us to form a posse to catch the Punisher now?”

“It’s not Claire, it’s Danny. He told us what Castle said. I think he believed him.”

Jessica very carefully does not crush the paper cup in her hand. 

“Danny’s an idiot,” she says.

“A lot of the time, yeah,” Luke agrees, not without fondness.

“Shit, you don’t believe him too, do you?”

Luke shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Luke, we dropped a building on him,” Jessica says, every word another wound in her.

“You really going to say that we know everything that was going on that night? This isn’t…” Luke sighs in frustration and puts his coffee down. “The world didn’t change just because Tony Stark put a suit of armor on. It didn’t even change just because Steve Rogers got pumped full of who-knows-what. It’s always been this way, things happening just outside of what we think we know. Matt, he was one of those things. And yeah, we dropped a building on him, but he was forty stories down, in a hole that no-one should have been able to dig, surrounded by the bones of a dragon, with his girlfriend who could come back from the dead and take you and me out with a flick of her wrist.” He pauses, and Jessica realizes that she’s hugging her coffee cup against her chest, as if to defend herself against Luke’s words. Luke takes a deep breath. “If Castle believes there’s a chance, I don’t want to be the one who stopped him.”

Jessica forces down the lump in her throat and the stinging in her eyes.

“Why would Castle care about Matt, anyway?” she says, taking a sip.

“Matt and Foggy defended him.” That makes Jessica choke on her coffee. “You didn’t know?”

“Why would I know that? Why would you?”

“Bobby checked Foggy out when Claire sent him down to Georgia for me. Turned up some of Foggy’s old cases.”

“You really think Castle got that attached to his lawyer?”

Luke shrugs. “You did.”

So many responses well up inside Jessica. Matt was more to her than her lawyer. Matt stopped being her lawyer the minute he grabbed her scarf off her chest. Matt was a goddamn blind ninja asshole, and he weaseled his way into her space and…

OK, she might understand why Castle cared.

“Fine,” she snapped. “Let’s go find the Punisher.”

***

It wasn’t hard to find Frank Castle, if you knew what you were looking for. Luke knew that Castle hadn’t been in the city for the past few weeks, so he would probably start his investigation at the beginning. So Luke and Jessica strolled into the former site of Midland Circle, past the trucks carrying rubble away, ignoring the looks they got for not wearing hard hats. When someone tried to stop them, Luke asked for the foreman, and they were directed to a small portable hut in one of the corners that had already been cleared.

As they passed the pile of rubble, steel rebars sticking out at dangerous angles, Luke glanced at Jessica. She was scowling, as usual, but her forehead was creased almost in pain. Luke fought down the urge to put his arm around her.

Castle had been to see the foreman earlier in the morning, asking about possible exits, any evidence that someone might have clawed their way out of the hole beneath the rubble. The foreman hadn’t recognized him.

“Said he was investigating the construction,” the foreman says. “Good at it, too.”

“How so?” Luke says.

“Knew just what to ask. Whatever he was looking for, he found it.”

Luke and Jessica exchange a shocked look, and exit as quickly as they can.

“Call Danny,” Jessica says, when they’re out on the sidewalk.

“It might not -“

“Call Danny.”

Luke calls Danny.

They meet at Jessica’s office, then spread out across Hell’s Kitchen, trying to figure out where Castle would go next. Danny goes to Matt’s apartment, while Jessica checks his office. Luke tries to get into Castle’s head, tries to think like him, then realizes that he’s got the wrong idea.

“Franklin Nelson,” Foggy says as he picks up the phone.

“It’s Luke Cage,” Luke says. “I’ve got a question. About Matt.” There’s a long pause. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

“What’s the question?” Foggy sounds defeated, hollow.

“Where would he go, if he was hurt? If he needed help?”

“He’d - he’d go to Claire.”

“If she wasn’t around?”

“Me? I don’t know. His dad’s gym, maybe, or his priest, I guess.” Another pause. “Why are you asking?”

“I…” Luke can’t tell Foggy, can’t get his hopes up, not yet. “Frank Castle’s in town,” he says. “He’s looking for Matt. We’re trying to figure out where he’d look.” It’s not a lie. It’s not the whole truth, but it’s not a lie.

“Oh.”

“So be careful, in case he comes after you,” Luke says.

“Yeah. Right. I’ll tell Karen.”

Luke ends the call, and hopes that Foggy will forgive him if he ever finds out.

The gym is empty, dark and locked up. The church, on the other hand, is open. Luke stands at the back and takes it in. It almost feels uncanny, how close it is to the Baptist church he grew up in, but with the subtle differences that mark its denomination. Ornate, old-fashioned decorations, none of the sleek, bold aesthetic Luke is used to. Soft, dim lighting, not like the bright Georgia sunlight Luke associates with faith and worship.

There’s no-one in the pews, but Luke is suddenly keenly aware he is being watched. He glances around, expecting a priest to be glaring at him, but to all appearances, the church is empty.

Luke’s spent twenty years learning not to trust appearances.

He strides over to the confessional, and snaps the curtain open. Empty. He glances around, then makes his way up to the altar.

“Not there, either,” comes a voice from behind him.

Luke turns to see Frank Castle leaning against a door Luke hadn’t noticed.

“Waiting for me?” Luke says.

“Wasn’t sure it would be you. Might’ve been the Rand kid, or the PI.” Castle crosses his arms.

“You’re looking for Daredevil.” 

Luke watches an odd expression cross Castle’s face.

“He’s a stubborn little shit,” Castle says.

Luke has to chuckle. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“He took a bullet to the head and kept on coming. So he’s not dead until I see a body.” Castle starts walking up the aisle, his eyes on the crucifix above the altar. “He believed in all this. Believed in redemption and forgiveness, and all that shit.” Castle shrugs. “Maybe that made a difference.”

Luke is struck by how tired he looks. But they’re all tired, they’ve been tired for weeks.

“Maybe,” Luke says. “And if you think you can find him, you have to do it his way.”

Castle stares at the crucifix for a long, long moment.

“Altar Boy,” he says softly.

“What?”

“’S what I called him, after I found out he was Catholic.” He turns to Luke again, and the look in his eyes is almost heartbroken. “Red knows what I am,” he says. “I’m just going to get him back.”

“Not if you're killing people. I'm not going to let that happen.”

“So make yourself useful.” Castle straightens up, the vulnerability disappearing. “Priest’s in the priory - probably more willing to talk to Harlem’s hero than the Punisher. And get your PI friend to start checking hospitals. And I want to talk to the Rand kid about what exactly Red was doing at Midland Circle.”

“We’re not taking orders from you,” Luke says.

And Castle grins. “Not an order. Just pointing out the best course of action.” He saunters down the aisle. “I’ll meet you at the PI’s office.”

And he’s gone, leaving Luke in the middle of the church, suddenly having to explain to Danny and Jessica that they are now allied with the Punisher.

“Sweet Christmas.”


End file.
